Matt Niksch

President

About – Matt Niksch

Matt Niksch serves as President for the Noble Network of Charter Schools. As President, he leads the Noble Support Team and is responsible for the execution of Noble’s strategic plan, with particular focus on ensuring that all students have equitable and positive school experiences that equip them to succeed on the path of their choice, leading to 75% of alumni completing college. He assumed the role of president in 2019 after seven years as Chief College Officer. In the latter role, he supported campuses in all aspects of college access, college completion, and career outcomes. Matt’s work has been nationally recognized for its innovative and data-driven approach to college and alumni counseling based on a suite of tools that he shares with other networks, and was profiled in a chapter of the book “The B.A. Breakthrough: How Ending Diploma Disparities Can Change the Face of America,” by Richard Whitmire.

In addition to his work at Noble, Matt lectures part-time on education policy at the Harris School of Public Policy of the University of Chicago. Prior to Noble, Matt was Director, College Completion Initiative, at the KIPP Foundation. He has worked previously as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company and as an aerospace and systems engineer at Lockheed Martin. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, an M.S. in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech, and B.S. degrees in electrical engineering and aerospace engineering from Purdue University. Matt and his wife Karen love to travel internationally with their three sons.

Why do you work at Noble?

I work at Noble because our schools recognize the potential in every child, and the people in our schools work every day to help students meet their goals. As a parent, it’s what I want for my own children, and it’s great to see it happening every day at Noble.

Who was your favorite teacher while growing up?

Mrs. Tipton. She was my English teacher senior year and really encouraged me to keep writing even though I was interested in engineering.

Favorite thing about Noble or favorite Noble moment?

I love going to the College Fair in March. With over 2,000 Noble juniors from every campus interacting with a couple hundred college reps, it’s just a great example of our mission.

What do you/your department do at Noble?

My primary focus is in supporting chiefs to ensure the Noble Support Team is as effective as possible at helping campuses do their work. I work with the entire support team to help them provide service to campuses, but directly manage the Data & Innovation, Development, Finance, Operations, and People teams.

Start at Noble?

2012, 8 years of service

Hometown:

I grew up in the north St. Louis suburbs, but was born on an Air Force base in New Mexico.

Education:

Purdue University (B.S. in Electrical Engineering, B.S. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering)
Virginia Tech (M.S. in Electrical Engineering)
University of Chicago Booth School of Business (M.B.A.)

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